Experimental Architecture. Computational Design and Digital Fabrication (Summer School)

Students must have passed no less than 70 ECTS on their bachelor’s or Bachelor of Engineering degree. 

At the end of the course, the students are expected to have knowledge about:

• Emerging digital technologies of fabrication, such as 3D printing and architectural robotics, their characteristics, possibilities, and limitations

• The potential enabled by the use of robotics and digital fabrication technologies in the context of architecture, engineering, and construction

• Computational tools for design, engineering, and fabrication that allow the integration of material, manufacturing, and structural performance

At the end of the course, the students are expected to be able to:

• Complete design tasks through visual programming and parametric modelling

• Use digital tools for early-stage analysis and optimization of material, geometrical and mechanical performance within the design process

• Manufacture experimental construction systems through digital fabrication processes

• Fabricate and build scaled and full-sized prototypes with digital fabrication machinery

• Conceptualize robot programs and run simulations of robotic fabrication processes

At the end of the course, the students will acquire competencies to:

• Define research methods for conducting specific design and construction experiments on a given topic and discuss the results

• Engage with research-driven projects that explore the architectural potential of robotic fabrication processes

• Prototype, test and evaluate specific digital fabrication technique

Digital Fabrication technologies have the disruptive potential to revolutionise how we conceive and shape our built environment. Through the use of novel fabrication techniques, designers and engineers are challenged to explore innovative structures that benefit from the capacity to produce performative and sustainable architecture with, up to now, unreached levels of complexity and control on the material organisation.

The Summer School focuses on exploring design ideas and producing fabrication artefacts as answers to some fundamental driving questions: what kind of tectonic configurations can be enabled by means of robotic manufacturing? How do we realize high-performance architecture with it? How can we digitally build bespoke architecture in a sustainable way?

Adopting a design/make approach, catalyzed through tailored computational techniques, experimental architectural configurations will be investigated through both small-scale prototyping and 1:1 scale construction demonstrators. Working in interdisciplinary teams of different sizes, the students will be involved in knowledge generation and build-up as first-person researchers and developers. The goals and the program of the Summer School are not entirely pre-planned but will evolve throughout the two weeks in response to research undertakes and findings.

The course is conceived as a highly engaging design-to-fabrication activity, where students will develop experimental prototypes related to specific design/research topics.

Multiple forms of instruction will be involved:

• Lectures on the role of digital fabrication in experimental construction

• Guided tutorials on parametric modelling notions related to a specific course project

• Introduction and exercises for specific digital fabrication techniques

• Supervision of group-based design activities

• Collaborative fabrication of prototypes by students with tutors’ coordination

• Final review of the project development and output with invited guests

Time of classes: 2 weeks in August

The enrollment is limited to 6 students. In the event of receiving more applications, priority will be given to applicants based on the following selection criteria: 

1. Students from the Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering
2. Students from the Bachelor of Engineering (Diploma)
3. Students from other SDU programs

Please note that registration for this elective course is binding. However, we recommend you apply for de-registration of Summer School courses if you do not pass your exams in June, leaving you to register for re-exams in August. Apply by filling out the form “Application of Exemption from the Deadline for Registration or De-registration for Courses” here: https://spoc.sdu.dk/form/4153/view

Applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis, determined by the time of receipt of the complete application. If a course reaches full capacity, alternative course options from your prioritized list will be offered. Admission decisions will be communicated continuously.

If you need to pass mandatory subjects from the 5th semester of your bachelor's programme, you cannot register for the summer course as a master's elective, as you can only take master's electives once your bachelor's degree has been completed.